Method and apparatus for searching using an active ontology

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for searching using an active ontology. One embodiment of a method for searching a database includes receiving a search string, where the search string comprises one or more words, generating a semantic representation of the search string in accordance with an ontology, searching the database using the semantic representation, and outputting a result of the searching.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/341,743, filed Dec. 22, 2008, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEARCHING USING AN ACTIVE ONTOLOGY, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/015,495, filed Dec. 20, 2007, which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to database searching and relates more specifically to searching using an active ontology.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Searching by keywords is well known in the field of database searching. For example, when using an Internet search engine, a user typically enters one or more keywords as a search terms, such that the search results will include database content associated with the keywords. Often, the creator of the content will choose the keywords that will cause the content to be retrieved by a database search (e.g., by “tagging” the content with the keywords). For example, the creator of a review of a fancy Italian restaurant named Restaurant X may tag the review with keywords such as “Italian,” “restaurant,” and “fancy” such that the review is retrieved when a user enters one or more of those keywords in a query.

A drawback of this approach is that keywords may not capture all of the synonyms that users will use in practice when searching. For example, referring to the example above, the review of Restaurant X might not be retrieved if the user instead enters keywords such as “Italian” and “elegant” or “upscale.” These consequences are particularly significant in the field of advertising, where advertisers rely on users viewing their advertisements to generate sales. Moreover, conventional database search systems that search by keywords may have trouble determining the high level intent of what a user is seeking. For example, a search system may be unable to determine that the keywords “Restaurant X,” “Friday,” and “8:00 PM” indicate that the user wishes to make reservations for Friday at 8:00 PM at Restaurant X.

Thus, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for searching using an active ontology.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for searching using an active ontology. One embodiment of a method for searching a database includes receiving a search string, where the search string comprises one or more words, generating a semantic representation of the search string in accordance with an ontology, searching the database using the semantic representation, and outputting a result of the searching.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method for searching using an active ontology, according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of an exemplary active ontology that may be used to facilitate a search in accordance with the method illustrated in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a high level block diagram of the present search method that is implemented using a general purpose computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for searching using an active ontology. An “ontology”, generally, is a data structure that represents domain knowledge, where distinct classes, attributes, and relations among classes are defined. A separate engine may operate or reason on this data structure to produce certain results. In certain embodiments of the present invention, an ontology is used to select content (e.g., a set of advertisements) from a database given a user query.

The approach to searching that is embodied in the present application may be of particular use in the field of advertising, although the invention is not limited as such. Specifically, the semantic structure employed by embodiments of the present invention allows for improved advertisement indexing. Moreover, the use of links (such as “suggests” and causal links) in the search ontology facilitates the prediction of upcoming relevant content or user actions, and these links can be automatically learned through use.

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a method 100 for searching using an active ontology, according to the present invention. The basic task of the method 100 is to take a user query (i.e., search string) and return a set of relevant content (e.g., advertisements). In one embodiment, the content is sorted by the user's preferences.

The method 100 is initialized at step 102 and proceeds to step 104, where the method 100 receives a search string from a user. In one embodiment, the search string is substantially similar to a search string typically given to an online search engine (e.g., a phrase such as “find fancy Italian food” or “Italian food in San Francisco”).

In step 106, the method 100 splits the search string into one or more tokens, each token representing at least one word in the search string. The method 100 then proceeds to step 108 and matches the tokens to nodes of an active ontology. FIG. 2, for example, illustrates one embodiment of an exemplary active ontology 200 that may be used to facilitate a search in accordance with the method 100. As illustrated, the active ontology 200 comprises a plurality of nodes 202 ₁-202 _(n) (hereinafter collectively referred to as “nodes 202”). The nodes 202 represent concepts, which may be categories or classes (e.g., as in the case of node 202 ₄, which represents the concept or category “Restaurant”) or attributes of the classes (e.g., as in the case of nodes 202 ₇, 202 ₈, and 202 _(n), which represent, respectively, the concepts or attributes “Style,” “Price Range,” and “Location”). The nodes 202 are connected by links 204 ₁-204 _(n) (hereinafter collectively referred to as “links 204”) which represent the relations among the classes and attributes represented by the nodes 202. For instance, the link 204 ₁₀ represents the fact that the class “Restaurant” has an attribute of “Style.”

Referring back to FIG. 1, the individual tokens into which the search string is split will activate word matching nodes in the active ontology. In one embodiment, the active ontology is customized for a particular purpose, such as advertising. The method 100 will try to parse the list of tokens, using the active ontology, as a whole phrase, in order to try to determine the overall intent of the user. Thus, the method 100 will try to parse as many of the tokens as possible. This means that if there are multiple ambiguous interpretations of the search string, the method 100 will try to evaluate each weighted alternative based on all of the tokens derived from the search string. The interpretation with the best weight (i.e., the highest confidence) will be used to generate a semantic representation of the search string in step 110.

Specifically, in step 110, the method 100 generates a semantic representation of the search string using the ontology nodes. The ontology nodes corresponding to the best weighted interpretation will create the semantic representation of the phrase. This semantic structure will contain the contextual information that was extracted from the search string. For instance, if the search string was “find fancy Italian food,” the method 100 might translate the search string into a semantic structure such as ‘find(restaurant, [style(“Italian”)], [price_range(“fancy”)])’. This structure captures the user's intent to find a restaurant and it also specifies an additional constraint using a type attribute, restricting the results to those restaurants that are fancy and serve Italian food.

In step 112, the method 100 uses the semantic representation of the search string to search a database (e.g., a database of advertisers). That is, the method 100 searches the database for content that best matches all of the criteria embodied in the semantic representation. In the above example, for instance, a database of advertisements or reviews for restaurants (such as Zagat Survey, LLC's Zagat.com®) would be searched, restricted to those restaurants that are fancy and serve Italian food. However, if the original or a subsequent search string included the additional constraint of “Friday, 8:00 PM,” a semantic representation of this additional constraint might motivate search in a different database, such as a database that allows a user to make restaurant reservations (such as OpenTable, Inc's OpenTable.com®), as illustrated in FIG. 2. The additional constraint of day (“Friday”) and time (“8:00 PM”) changes the resultant semantic representation in a subtle way that cannot be easily mapped to traditional keyword approaches. As discussed above, the user's original search string may be ambiguous, but the method 100 will parse the search string and translate it to a precise semantic structure that can be used to construct a database query. In this way, the search string is used to search for content based on semantically meaningful attributes and not just based on keywords.

The method 100 outputs the results of the database search to the user in step 114, before terminating in step 116. In one embodiment, the method 100 stores the results in addition to outputting them. In one embodiment, the stored results comprise a record including at least one of: the search string, the semantic representation of the search string, the search results, and a time stamp indicating when the search string was received. The record allows the results to be retrieved by the user at a later time. In addition, the record also allows the method 100 to learn patterns of user behavior that may assist in updating the ontology, as discussed in greater detail below.

In one embodiment, if the search string received in step 104 appears unclear or incomplete (e.g., some of the search criteria are missing), the method 100 examines the user's profile or search history to select default values. For instance, if a first search string was “find fancy Italian restaurants in San Francisco” and a second search string is “get evening showtimes,” then the method 100 will remember the location San Francisco, Calif. from the first query when selecting the locations for movie theaters. Also, the user's profile may specify a preference for art movies, so that preference may be added automatically to the second query.

Embodiments of the present invention will therefore parse a user's query and determine the higher level concepts and categories that describe what the user is seeking. These concepts are then used as an index into the database of relevant content. Content that triggers on a particular concept will also be triggered on the subconcepts. For instance, a user query for “Italian restaurants” will automatically trigger ads for “Sicilian restaurants” as well, because “Sicilian” is a subconcept of “Italian.” Content providers (e.g., advertisers) only need to register on the highest level category that they wish to match, and they will automatically be triggered for subcategories and their synonyms as well.

Referring back to FIG. 2, as discussed above, links 204 in the active ontology 200 indicate relations among the classes and attributes represented by the nodes 202. Each of these links 204 represents a specific kind of relation. In one embodiment, the types of relations represented by the links 204 in the active ontology 200 include at least one of: an IS-A relation, a HAS-A relation, a CAUSAL relation (such as, for example, a SUGGESTS relation).

For example, in one embodiment, IS-A relations are used to link categories (i.e., concepts in the ontology) to broader categories. In further embodiments, sets of synonyms are defined for concepts. In this way, the search string can be translated into a semantic search for content based on broader categories like “European restaurants” or “fancy restaurants” or “expensive food”.

In a further embodiment, HAS-A relations are used to specify additional search criteria that will be associated with a concept or category. For instance, when searching for a restaurant, a city location may be a mandatory search parameter, as illustrated in FIG. 2. This is specified using a mandatory HAS-A link (link 204 _(n)) in the ontology 200 from the RESTAURANT concept node (node 202 ₄) to the LOCATION node (node 202 _(n)). A price range is also a useful search parameter, but may be optional. Thus, a HAS-A link (link 204 ₁₁) from the RESTAURANT concept node (node 202 ₄) to the PRICE RANGE concept node (node 202 ₈) may be established and marked as optional. The concepts that have HAS-A links become GATHER type nodes. When the user's search string is parsed, the semantic slots for these HAS-A links are filled in using the parsed tokens, or else default values are used from the user's profile and search history. Therefore, the present invention has this detailed information available when searching a database.

In further embodiments, the concepts of the present invention are used to model basic processes. In one embodiment, the ontology includes CAUSAL links or SUGGESTS links between concepts. CAUSAL links would be used if one concept directly causes another concept, or if one action usually precedes another action. SUGGESTS links are especially useful and would link user actions that often occur together but not in a particular order. For example, the concept nodes for RESTAURANT BOOKING (node 202 ₃) and MOVIE BOOKING (node 202 ₂) could be linked bidirectionally with a SUGGESTS link (link 204 ₅), as illustrated in FIG. 2. An ATM concept node (not shown), which represents a user visit to an automated teller machine (ATM), could be linked with a CAUSAL node to both RESTAURANT BOOKING (node 202 ₃) and MOVIE BOOKING (node 202 ₂) because a visit to an ATM often precedes dinner and a movie closely in time.

In further embodiments, a system according to the present invention utilizes the process model to help determine what else might interest a given user. For example, given a search string “find restaurants,” the present invention would activate the RESTAURANT concept node (node 202 ₄) and indirectly activate the RESTAURANT BOOKING (node 202 ₃) and MOVIE (node 202 ₂) concept nodes as well. If the search string was received during evening hours, then the RESTAURANT BOOKING node (node 202 ₃) would have higher confidence. This in turn would increase activation of SUGGESTS-linked nodes (e.g., the MOVIE node 202 ₂). Therefore, the system would query its database for restaurants and could also produce additional results for nearby movies. Each of the search results would be associated with the concepts that triggered them, so that the results for MOVIES could be presented separately to the user. Although this scenario utilizes a process model that is explicitly encoded into an ontology, those skilled in the art will appreciate that some of the links could be learned using data mining techniques from the logs of a particular user or the aggregated behavior of many users.

Over time, users of the present invention may ask for movies, restaurants, ATMs, gas stations, book stores, or the like. In one embodiment, the inventive system logs the corresponding semantic structures for each of the received search strings and the time stamps indicating when the search strings were received. These logs can be scanned in temporal order, and all of the search strings that happen within various time windows can be analyzed to make co-occurrence counts. By counting and ranking those pairs of events that co-occur over different time scales, patterns of behavior would emerge over a large body of users. For example, the logs may show many occurrences of MOVIE and RESTAURANT queries that happen within four hours of each other. If so, then the ontology could be automatically augmented with a SUGGESTS link between those nodes. In addition, ATM may also co-occur frequently with both MOVIE and RESTAURANT, but ATM should precede MOVIE and RESTAURANT in time with high probability. If so, then two CAUSAL links could be added from ATM to RESTAURANT and MOVIE. In this way, statistics could be collected for a particular user or for many users in aggregate. The system would offer related search results based on how frequently a related concept co-occurs with the user's current search string.

FIG. 3 is a high level block diagram of the present search method that is implemented using a general purpose computing device 300. In one embodiment, a general purpose computing device 300 comprises a processor 302, a memory 304, a search module 305 and various input/output (I/O) devices 306 such as a display, a keyboard, a mouse, a modem, and the like. In one embodiment, at least one I/O device is a storage device (e.g., a disk drive, an optical disk drive, a floppy disk drive). It should be understood that the search module 305 can be implemented as a physical device or subsystem that is coupled to a processor through a communication channel.

Alternatively, the search module 305 can be represented by one or more software applications (or even a combination of software and hardware, e.g., using Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC)), where the software is loaded from a storage medium (e.g., I/O devices 306) and operated by the processor 302 in the memory 304 of the general purpose computing device 300. Thus, in one embodiment, the search module 305 for database searching described herein with reference to the preceding Figures can be stored on a computer readable medium or carrier (e.g., RAM, magnetic or optical drive or diskette, and the like).

It should be noted that although not explicitly specified, one or more steps of the methods described herein may include a storing, displaying and/or outputting step as required for a particular application. In other words, any data, records, fields, and/or intermediate results discussed in the methods can be stored, displayed, and/or outputted to another device as required for a particular application. Furthermore, steps or blocks in the accompanying Figures that recite a determining operation or involve a decision, do not necessarily require that both branches of the determining operation be practiced. In other words, one of the branches of the determining operation can be deemed as an optional step.

While foregoing is directed to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs configured to be executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, the one or more programs including instructions for: receiving natural language input representing a user request; receiving contextual data associated with the natural language input; parsing, using an active ontology, a plurality of tokens representing the natural language input to determine a user intent corresponding to the natural language input, wherein the active ontology includes a plurality of concept nodes, and wherein the parsing comprises: matching a first token of the plurality of tokens to both a first concept node and a second concept node of the plurality of concept nodes, wherein matching the first token of the plurality of tokens to both the first concept node and the second concept node comprises: determining a confidence value associated with the first concept node based on the contextual data; and selecting the second concept node based on the confidence value associated with the first concept node; and in accordance with a determination that a second token of the plurality of tokens matches an attribute of the first concept node but not any attribute of the second concept node, determining that the user intent corresponds to a concept represented by the first concept node; generating a semantic structure for the user intent using the attribute of the first concept node and the second token; and performing a task corresponding to the semantic structure.
 2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first concept node represents a first action of searching a first database, and wherein the second concept node represents a second action of searching a second database different from the first database.
 3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the task includes creating an event in the first database in accordance with the attribute and the second token.
 4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of concept nodes are arranged in a hierarchical manner, and wherein the second concept node is a descendant of the first concept node in the active ontology.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein parsing the plurality of tokens further comprises matching a third token of the plurality of tokens to an attribute of the second. concept node, and wherein the generated semantic structure includes a constraint derived from the third token and from the attribute of the second concept node.
 6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the second concept node represents an attribute of the first concept node in the active ontology.
 7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first concept node represents the concept of making a restaurant booking, and wherein the second concept node represents a second concept of searching restaurant reviews.
 8. A method for natural language processing to perform a task, the method comprising: at an electronic device having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors: receiving natural language input representing a user request; receiving contextual data associated with the natural language input; parsing, using an active ontology, a plurality of tokens representing the natural language input to determine a user intent corresponding to the natural language input, wherein the active ontology includes a plurality of concept nodes, and wherein the parsing comprises: matching a first token of the plurality of tokens to both a first concept node and a second concept node of the plurality of concept nodes, wherein matching the first token of the plurality of tokens to both the first concept node and the second concept node comprises: determining a confidence value associated with the first concept node based on the contextual data; and selecting the second concept node based on the confidence value associated with the first concept node; and in accordance with a determination that a second token of the plurality of tokens matches an attribute of the first concept node but not any attribute of the second concept node, determining that the user intent corresponds to a concept represented by the first concept node; generating a semantic structure for the user intent using the attribute of the first concept node and the second token; and performing the task corresponding to the semantic structure.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first concept node represents a first action of searching a first database, and wherein the second concept node represents a second action of searching a second database different from the first database.
 10. The i rethod of claim 9, wherein the task includes creating an event in the first database in accordance with the attribute and the second token.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of concept nodes are arranged in a hierarchical manner, and wherein the second concept node is a descendant of the first concept node in the active ontology.
 12. The method of claim I 1, wherein parsing the plurality of tokens further comprises matching a third token of the plurality of tokens to an attribute of the second concept node, and wherein the generated semantic structure includes a constraint derived from the third token and from the attribute of the second concept node.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the second concept node represents an attribute of the first concept node in the active ontology.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein the first concept node represents the concept of making a restaurant booking, and wherein the second concept node represents a second concept of searching restaurant reviews.
 15. An electronic device, comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for: receiving natural language input representing a user request; receiving contextual data associated with the natural language input; parsing, using an active ontology, a plurality of tokens representing the natural language input to determine a user intent corresponding to the natural language input, wherein the active ontology includes a plurality of concept nodes, and wherein the parsing comprises: matching a first token of the plurality of tokens to both a first concept node and a second concept node of the plurality of concept nodes wherein matching the first token of the plurality of tokens to both the first concept node and the second concept node comprises: determining a confidence value associated with the first concept node based on the contextual data; and selecting the second concept node based on the confidence value associated with the first concept node; and in accordance with a determination that a second token of the plurality of tokens matches an attribute of the first concept node but not any attribute of the second concept node, determining that the user intent corresponds to a concept represented by the first concept node; generating a semantic structure for the user intent using the attribute of the first concept node and the second token; and performing a task corresponding to the semantic structure.
 16. The device of claim 15, wherein the first concept node represents a first action of searching a first database, and wherein the second concept node represents a second action of searching a second database different from the first database.
 17. The device of claim 16, wherein the task includes creating an event in the first database in accordance with the attribute and the second token.
 18. The device of claim 15, wherein the plurality of concept nodes are arranged in a hierarchical manner, and wherein the second concept node is a descendant of the first concept node in the active ontology.
 19. The device of claim 18, wherein parsing the plurality of tokens further comprises matching a third token of the plurality of tokens to an attribute of the second concept node, and wherein the generated semantic structure includes a constraint derived from the third token and from the attribute of the second concept node.
 20. The device of claim 18, wherein the second concept node represents an attribute of the first concept node in the active ontology.
 21. The device of claim 15, wherein the first concept node represents the concept of making a restaurant booking, and wherein the second concept node represents a second concept of searching restaurant reviews. 